I’ve made a few quilts in my time, but never a rag quilt before. I fell in love with these flannel “retro” Christmas prints when I was in Lancaster, PA over the summer, but didn’t purchase them. Recently, I was poking around on Fabric.com (finally buying my Amy Butler Weekender bag pattern!) and since I needed to spend another $20 or so to qualify for free shipping, I went ahead and bought those flannels. What better way to use a bunch of flannels then with a rag quilt! I did a little google-ing to research how to make one (who knew the back was cut up into squares too?) and then went to town.

All my squares…neatly stacked up:

A sampling of the prints

It took me awhile to come up with the layout. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a definite pattern, or if I wanted random. If I wanted a pattern, coming up with the pattern layout repeat was a challenge because some fabrics were similar in color. Finally, I came up with this:

After I layed out the top, I decided that I wanted the back fabrics to be “in order”–meaning they would still look like one piece of fabric. So, I spent an afternoon putting out all those little squares for the backing out like a giant puzzle. It took about three hours to “reassamble” the backing fabric! After it was reassembled, I transfered the top pieces, and pinned away.
Obligitory “cat in the shot” picture. He’s laying on pins! Ouch!

“This quilt is mine—allllll mine!”

After lots and lots of sewing, here it is before it became a “rag quilt”

And after lots and lots….and lots of snipping to help it “rag” up in the washer. (My hands really hurt remembering this step…)
After three times through the washer, I deemed it done, and took it outside (on a blustery day) to photograph it:

My favorite picture:

The back: I ran out of material for the back, so I used leftover squares from the front and ran them down the center.

Another cool picture—I like how it shows off the rag seams:
All in all, I’m really happy with how it came out. It was much more work then I had thought, but its the perfect sized lap quilt, very snuggly, and festive without being overly “Christmas”. I love how the colors are un-traditional, but still very cheery!